20-teen...wait... no teen anymore!!

Hi everyone!!

What a Crazy week! So much happened! I have lots of pictures so be sure to check out my blog where my mom will post all of them!

So as most of you know Thursday was my birthday!!! I'm 20!!! So crazy. No longer a teenager. I really can't believe it. My birthday was also my three month mark! So it was a full on celebration day. Time is just going so fast. It needs to slow down. I'm not ready to be an adult. Haha but anyway my birthday was a pretty normal day. Birthdays on the mission aren't too exciting. In the morning I got to open all my presents and cards. Thank you to everyone who sent me something! It was so fun getting all those cards and just hearing from home. I miss you all! Then we spent the whole day tracting. Haha it was a long day. But we gave out three Book of Mormons and had lots of lessons on doorsteps so I say my birthday was a pretty successful day. We went to dinner that night at my ward mission leader's house and they had bought me a cake. It was so nice. The day before my birthday I had another birthday dinner. Every week we eat with a sister in the ward, Sister Gauch, and she is the sweetest lady ever! She made me an eclair cake. Yeah it was like a giant eclair.  The frosting was whipped cream. Most delicious thing I have ever eaten. Then on Saturday I got to go out to dinner with Aunt Sarah and Uncle John! They live here in Virginia and President Wilson gave them permission to take me out for my birthday! We got to go to the Cheesecake Factory. It was so fun to see family. I'm so happy that I got to do that. I'm so blessed to be in the states and close to loved ones. So I got three birthday cakes this year which was awesome. :) So there you have it. That was my birthday celebration!

This week was also fun because we had sisters meeting! So sisters meeting is where all the sisters in the mission (there are just over 100 of us) come together and we have little classes and we do a clothing exchange and it's a lot of fun. All the classes this time were on different Christ-like attributes. That seems to be a theme as I've been on my mission. I think the Lord is trying to tell me something. Haha but I really am doing my best to develop these attributes. I really want to be more Christ-like. It's something that I can work on my whole mission and I know I can develop these attributes. At sisters meeting I also got to see Sister Kellogg again! She taught one of the classes. It's always fun to see her. She will always be my mission mom :)

Well now time for the other big news of the week....I'm getting transferred!! I don't know where I'm going yet, but today is my last day in Woodbridge. Tomorrow I go to transfer meeting and will find out where in Virginia I am headed to and who my new companion is. It's been sad saying goodbye to everyone I've met here, and packing has been the biggest struggle of my life, but I'm excited! I can't wait to see another part of Virginia. I'm excited for a change.

I love you all! I miss you and hope you all have a great week!!

Love,

Sister Lawson 

P.s. Thanks to Mom and Dad, Tyler, Grandma and Grandpa, Papooh, Aunt Dee and the Rubster, Aunt Sarah and Uncle John, the Jessen family, the Lawson girls, the Plumb family, the Hamilton family, the Bright family, Mealii, and Mrs. Houghland for the cards and gifts!! And thanks to everyone else who sent me a birthday email! Loved hearing from all of you! I love you all!!

Sisters meeting.

Clothing exchange. (Abby's 3rd in on the right.)  

She ended up getting 2 skirts, 2 shirts, and a scarf.  Such a great idea!

Sisters training meeting.  Abby is on the left, 3 tables back, kind of under the basketball hoop.

Sister Kellogg, Sister Nagosha, Sister Lawson

Birthday cake #1 - Eclair cake!!

Abby and sister Gauch (Eclair cake maker).

Birthday dinner at Ward Mission Leader's house:  Brother and Sister Bringhurst.

Birthday cake #2

Decorated bathroom.

Happy Birthday AND 3 month mark!  (She left June 17th, birthday is September 17th.)

So many cards and gifts!

Aunt Sarah and Uncle John!

Birthday dinner #2 - Cheesecake Factory!

Birthday cake #3 - Chocolate Peanut butter cup cheesecake!

Time to say goodbye to Woodbridge.

Goodbye to Brother and Sister Bringhurst.

More Fit for the Kingdom.

Hi everyone!

This week... I'm trying to remember what we did this week. Last Monday was zone Pday and we played oompa again. I guess that's the only thing we ever do for zone Pdays. Haha but that's ok. Oompa is fun. I made a...basket..? Don't know what to call it. But I shot the football into the basketball hoop and made a point. It was so cool because I shot it from the three point and really didn't think it would go in, but it did. What can I say. I'm an oompa star. Haha

Anyway this week we spent a lot of time tracting. We had lots of doors slammed in our face, but we found four new investigators! It's so awesome to have people to teach again! I'm most excited for a women named Leny. We ran into her on the street and asked if she wanted to hear our message. Usually when we ask that people will just listen on the doorstep, but she invited us in and we sat down and had a whole lesson. It was so cool. We've seen her a few times this week and she is just so prepared. She reads and does everything we ask. It's really cool to see how the Lord prepares people for you to find.

So on Saturday we helped with this big event put on by the church. It's called Gifts of the Heart and it's basically like a giant free yard sale. People from the community donated tons of stuff Friday night. then on Saturday the doors are open for the whole community to just come in and take whatever they want. It's crazy! But really helps the community. There were 45 tables stacked with clothes of all sizes and there was a whole room that was just filled with shoes and another room that was filled with toys and it's all free. SO many people came. It was just a really cool event and I'm happy that I got to help out and be a part of it.

So today I ran a 5k. Our mission is having this "More Fit for the Kingdom" 5k competition. All the zones in the mission (I think there are 8 zones. I'm in the Woodbridge zone.) are competing against each other for best time. So this morning we had our race. It was painful. I would tell you my time... But I don't want to. Haha I was the 4th fastest sister though. There are 14 sisters in my zone so I beat 10 of them. Haha not really an accomplishment, but hey, I survived the 5k!

Well I'm tired and sore.  This is my last week of being a teenager! crazy!!! Love you all!! Miss you!!

Love,

Sister Lawson

P.S. Thanks to Dad and Grandma for the letters this week!

Flyer for the race.

Entire Woodbridge Zone at the 5K

4th Sister to finish!

Cool place we went to for dinner.  It was like whole foods, but better.

Me waiting in the rain for Gifts of the Heart to start.

All the clothes.  Each balloon is another table full of clothes!

I know when I am baptized.

Hi everyone!

To start off, I want to give a shout out to my mamma! Happy birthday! I love you! 

Anyway, this week was great. Last Monday we went to the National Museum of the Marine Corps. It was really cool. They had all these rooms that depicted different wars so you can learn about each war and what the marines did in that war. Very cool. I'll send pics and if you're ever in Virginia you should go. It's really cool and makes you proud to be an American! I loved it! 

This week we also had our "last supper" with Tee. We got to go to her new house and have dinner and say goodbye. It was sad. She gave us all this Bob Marley stuff when we left. Haha I got a bracelet. I'll miss her. She is quite a story to tell. Such a crazy person.

Anyway, the big news of the week is Evelyn got baptized!!! It was so great. She was so excited and Sister Kellogg got to come from Charlottesville to see! It was so fun seeing Sister Kellogg again. I really miss her. But the baptism was wonderful. Evelyn was so happy and it was so cool to witness. She was the first person I taught when I came here and at that time she wouldn't even pray for us. And now she is a member. So fun to watch people grow and change and so cool to finally have someone be baptized! Im just so happy! I feel like I did my job in Woodbridge and that I am ready for the next place. We will just have to wait and see if I get transferred in two weeks.

So as I mentioned last week, Evelyn was our only investigator and now that she is baptized we have no one. Haha so we spent really the whole week tracting. I feel like I say that every week. We need to find people to teach! I want to have more baptisms because those are fun! 

Well I love you all! Hopefully this week I will find people! 

Love,

Sister Lawson

P.s thanks to dad for the postcard and thanks to the Tenney girls for the drawings!!

Marine Corp's museum

Last dinner with Tee.

A cupcake in Mom's honor.

Evelyn's Baptism!

He is aware.

Hi everyone! 

SO much happened this week! So to start off last Monday we spent the day getting Sister Ngoshas hair done. She got it all braided. It took like three hours, but looks cool. I wish I could get my hair braided like that... But it would look bad on me. Haha. This week was also Sister Ngoshas year mark so I waited until she was asleep the night before and then like a ninja I decorated her desk. Haha she was so surprised when she saw it the next morning. Crazy she's been out a year. I feel like I will never get to that point. The time goes fast, but at the same time I feel like I have forever left. This week we also spent some time making cookies at a member's house. We made so many cookies! They tasted so good. Man I'm going to get fat out here. The struggle. Haha We also went on exchanges this week. I was with Sister Canty again. I went to her area this time though. It was weird being in a different area and tracting streets I have never seen before. I know my area so well now. I don't even need a GPS to get around! But it was fun seeing a different area of Woodbridge. Also my apartment is way nicer than hers. I started with a good apartment and now once I get transferred I know I will have to have a not so nice one. Haha but anyways I just love Sister Canty. She's my Colorado buddy and we get along great! I loved spending the day with her.

So now for my really cool/sad/spiritual story of the week. So with Tee moved we basically only have two investigators. We only have two people that we teach on a regular basis and who are preparing for baptism. So on Thursday we had appointments scheduled with both of them. Erika in the afternoon and Evelyn in the evening. So we go to Erika's and teach and everything is going well and then when we are about to leave she tells us that she no longer wants to meet with us. She says she doesn't want to change religions and that this will be our last meeting. We get in the car and I just start crying. I was, well still am, so upset. She was preparing to be baptized soon and then she just dropped us. It's heart wrenching. You just feel like you did something wrong. You just feel so rejected. People have dropped us before, but no one this close to baptism. This was my first time going through that and I hate it. It's a horrible feeling. It's hard to describe. You just have to go through it to understand. So Sister Ngosha tries to cheer me up and then we plan for Evelyn's lesson. Evelyn I have talked about a lot in my emails.  She's the one who recently went to the temple. She has been set on date for baptism like three times, but then always says she isn't ready the week before. So we planned this whole lesson on how she is ready and then decided that if she still says she wants to wait that we are going to have to stop meeting with her. Sometimes you just have to let people go and hope they realize that they are ready on their own. It's a hard thing to decide and I didn't want to do it after Erika. So we go over and I was so scared. We go in and start talking and I say, "So Evelyn. How are you feeling about baptism next week?" She answers and says "I've been thinking...." and then I know what follows. We have the same conversation every week. It's always followed with I'm not ready. I almost started crying. I didn't want to get rejected twice in one day by our only two investigators. But to my surprise she said, "I'm ready. I'm ready and I'm excited." I couldn't believe it. All I could say was "what?!" She told us that she finally knew that she was ready and I was overcome with joy. We then awkwardly didn't have a lesson to teach so we just planned her baptism. Haha, Next time I write home I'll have her baptism to write about! 

The reason I tell this story is because I know that God is so aware of each and every one of us. I was not sent to Virginia to baptize Erika. Maybe other missionaries in the future are, but I'm not. The Lord knew me and knew that I would be upset and so he waited until the day that I felt so rejected to finally give Evelyn the courage to be baptized. We have been struggling with Evelyn and have been praying and fasting for her and I have just been waiting for Evelyn to get her answer and on the day when I was so upset and thought I was the worst missionary ever, that's the day that we got our answers. God works on His own time. He has a perfect plan and as long as we are patient He will make sure everything works out. He will turn horrible days into happy ones. I am just so grateful that I got to experience that. Just remember that God is aware of you and loves you all so much and so do I. I pray and think about you all everyday. I love you and hope you all have a great week!

Love,

Sister Lawson 

P.s. Thanks to....well no letters this week, but I am so grateful for all of your prayers and support!! I love you all!! :)

Making Cookies!

Decorating Sister Ngosha's desk.